I had a lee uniformer, that wasn't doing it for some reason so upgraded to the redding and that still isn't working. If I had to guess I would say the pockets are tapered for some reason and not getting all the way down. What can I do about this? Call Norma?

I had a similar problem but was seating primers with the RCBS press. I tried changing brass, primers and technique before nearly giving up. I determined it was the press by giving a few pieces of my brass and primers to a buddy and asked him to seat the primers. Every one of them seated normally in his press. I replaced the priming apparatus and never had a problem since.

If our OP was using a RCBS rock chucker press with priming arm I would say to check to see the cup is tight. They will unscrew over time. Takes a pc of metal the dia of a needle to fit the tiny hole to tighten.

Perhaps the hand priming tool has a similar way to tighten the seating cup?

I use the same seater tool as you so I was just asking. Not trying to insult. I've installed mine wrong end up before.

It's possible to determine in the pocket is tapered but I don't think so. I believe whats occuring is the pocket isn't quite deep enough for the primer brand you are using (remember that all primers aren't the same height, they can actually vary by as much as 7 thousands in cup height from brand to brand and even vary lot to lot in the same brand).

I found that out with my CVA muzzleloader when I shimmed the firing pin retainer. I had a pack of CCI 209's and bought 1000 Federal 209's. I set the retainer for the Federals and the CCI's would not allow the breech to close due to the cup height difference. Incidently, slamming the breech closed on a shimmed CVA with a high primer insures a misfire.....FYI.

You can have the same issue in a rifle primer, if the pocket depth is on the shallow side and the cups are on the high side, you'll wind up with the primer face proud of the cartridge face, no matter how hard you try to seat the primer. It only goes so far and it hits the bottom of the pocket. Thats it.

My suggestion is try a different brand of primer and see if the seated height changes or mike your primers and compare to another brand...

Norma produces good cases but like Lapua, the tolerances are tighter than run of the mill brass.

I realize primers are a bit tough to get right now, but I believe thats your issue.